Room to Breathe
by cjryuu
Summary: oneshot After the defeat of Naraku, Kagome needs time to think about her relationship with Inuyasha and where its going.


_I do not own Inuyasha or any of its Characters, I also don't own "Room to Breathe" by Reba._

Kagome Higurashi looked out on the cold, lonely battlefield, or what remained of one. Her friends stood beside her, just as drenched in as much blood as she, or in some cases more. They each just stood there, looking at the same object. The same body. Naraku.

Over just didn't seem to cut it, it just didn't seem to describe the feelings that were bubbling within each of them at the moment. No one could speak, no one could move. It seemed as if merely breathing would some how disrupt the fabric of time and throw them all back into the very beginning of the war they had fought for so long.

"Is it really over," she dared to whisper.

"I think so," Sango answered her carefully. The group each sighed. Kagome sat, putting her head in her hands fighting back the tears that tried to force their way out. Sango just held her Hiraikotsu, staring at its milky frame. Miroku was peeling off the gloves on his hands, using the tips of his fingers to trace the skin that had once been plagued by his Wind Tunnel. Shippo sat beside Kagome, throwing his head back and looking up at the blue sky.

And Inuyasha... Kagome looked up to see him pulling out the hunk of Shikon Jewel that had been Naraku's ally for so long.

He looked at her... and smiled.

"Kagome! KAGOME!" The girl sighed, biting back a growl. She turned on the half-demon ready to chew him out for so callously following her to school... yet again.

"What," she had meant to yell. Maybe even scream... or bellow, if only her lips hadn't been covered with someone else's. She opened her eyes in shock, recognizing Inuyasha at once. When he finally pulled back, smiling boyishly at her, she couldn't help but gawk at him.

"What," he asked annoyed now. "Did I do something wrong?" She shook her head...not really sure herself.

"Why... what..."

"Come on Kagome..." he told her embarrassed.

"But... what about Kikyo... what about..." He took her by the shoulders, pulling her close.

"What about it," he asked her, uncharacteristically tender. '_What about it indeed_,' she couldn't help but think.

_You ain't done nothing wrong, but I think we need to talk  
You might be the one, but before we go too far  
I need a little time to figure out my heart  
Who could ask for more, but I need to know for sure  
I haven't been myself from the minute that we met  
I ran into your world and kinda walked out on myself  
All those dreams I had, I began to second guess for you  
One too many questions until I know the truth_

Sitting alone in her room later that night, she couldn't help but start thinking about him. She looked out over her neighborhood through her window, and thought.

So many times she had thought about this... this... one deal. She couldn't help but describe it any other way. Romance seemed way to serious for someone barely in High School. Affair had no appeal at all for her. Problem was too negative... Grabbing her head in frustration, she laid it on her knees, letting her arms wrap around her shins, scrunching herself up into her own little world.

She could remember every time she had ever had this... feeling. The first time she had meant him, when she had freed him from the tree. The times he had saved her from some Demon or another. The times she had saved him from Kikyo... the time she had caught him with Kikyo...

"How can I do this," she asked herself honestly. "Ever since I went back to the Feudal Era I've been living a double life, and now... now..." She dug her nails into her palms, trying to just feel something she knew to be true. "If I had to leave everything behind... how could I ask him to live here? He knows nothing of my world... but then, I know hardly anything of his." She couldn't help but cry. "How can someone love someone who lives in a whole different place in time! Why does _my_ life have to be something out of the Twilight Zone?"

_I need room to breathe  
A little time to think  
To make sure I don't lose me  
I need room to breathe_

"Kagome?" She pulled herself tighter into a ball, before looking up.

"Hey Inuyasha." He touched her hair, gently running his hand through her hair.

"I know..." but she cut him off, placing a finger on his lips.

"I need room. Inuyasha we've played this game for so long... and now that we've finally made a move, I just need to think. There is so much to think about... so much I haven't thought about." He looked at her, his eyes softening.

"I know." She nodded, chewing on her lip as she wiped her cheek to get the tears away.

_I __know you're not to blame, and I swear there's no one new  
This has to do with me and not a thing to do with you  
So don't try to understand, you don't have a thing to prove to me  
If you really love me, just give me what I need_

"Its not your fault," she told him, as she prepared to leave.

"Do you have anyone else... here," he asked her somewhat stumbling over the words.

"No... Inuyasha... you've saved me so many times... you've always been there for me, but... you have to understand that this time is... its just... so different. You've proven yourself a thousand times over to me... but me..." He nodded, turning at the door, not trusting himself to look back. "If you really love me, just give me this. Let me try to save myself," she whispered, knowing full well that he could hear her.

He nodded, closing the door softly behind him.

_I need room to breathe  
A little time to thinkTo make sure I don't lose me  
I need room to breathe_

Kagome sat in her usual desk, waiting for the teacher to come in the room and start the day. Her mind swam in a million directions as she listened to the people around her. Some were talking about parties, others about dates... until something just caught her attention.

"I love you," one of her classmates told his girlfriend, twirling her hair around.

"Me too," the girl giggled. Kagome suddenly felt disgusted. '_How can they just... say that! They're in HIGH SCHOOL! What do they know of love? Of the world? They've probably never even dated someone else! How do they know!_'

"Class! ATTENTION," the teacher bellowed, calling the kids to order. "Now..."

_Please don't take this wrong  
Please don't turn away_

"She'll come around," Miroku assured Inuyasha.

"Don't worry," Sango nodded. The three of them were sitting at the Bone Eater's Well, trying to cheer the half-demon up. Ever since he had come back to the Feudal Era, he had sat on the side and stayed there, refusing to leave.

"You've fought before," Miroku tried, failing to grasp the situation fully. In his mind it was just another episode, same as always.

"I kissed her," he whispered, almost too low to be heard.

"You what," Sango asked thinking she had heard wrong.

"I kissed her," he repeated, brokenly. '_He's so... raw... so venerable_,' she thought shocked.

"Inuyasha," Miroku whispered, touching his friend on the shoulder, sitting beside him.

Nothing else needed to be said.

_I just don't want to look back one day and say  
I need room to breathe_

Kagome walked up the stairs to the Temple, completely pissed off. Here she was having a major problem, and there were no answers at all. Everyone she knew was, in her mind, too naive to have anything in common with her now. "How can this be happening," she asked suddenly sitting down in the middle of the stairs. "I'm so young... how can I be doing this? How can I think I love someone... when I haven't even lived yet?" She wanted to scream at everyone how horrible her life was, how unfair it was.

"Kagome?" She recognized the soft voice of her mother, and mentally flinched. "Are you okay?"

"Hey mom." She leaned her head on her mother's shoulder as the older woman sat beside her.

"Honey... is everything okay? I saw your friend walk out the other night... so sad..."

"Mom, how was it when you met Dad?" Her mother smiled, wrapping her arms around her daughter the way she had when she was younger.

"We met in High School, you know... sweethearts. We were seniors and we... were just in love."

"How did you know what it was?" Her mother laughed a little.

"We didn't. Well... we didn't recognize what it really was, we thought we did though. All teenagers do, but only a few can really see it for what it is at that age. Your father and I were just lucky you could say. We just sort of knew what there wasn't going to be anyone better for either of us out there." Kagome hugged her mom tightly as if using her as an anchor to hold onto this world. "You just have to... work it out Kagome. You just go with it and see how it feels." Her mother lifted her chin until their eyes met, both brimming with tears. "You just have to make a decision and go with it." She stood up, and began walking back to the house. "We'll always support you," she smiled.

Kagome watched her mother walk away, holding her hand over her mouth.

"Just go with it," she repeated.

_A little time to think  
To make sure I don't lose me  
I need room to breathe _

"INUYASHA," the half-demon heard. He was sitting up in a tree, high enough to get as much solitude as he could have, but when hearing that voice, he quickly let himself climb back down the trunk. "Inuyasha," she whispered, pushing her jet-black hair behind her ears.

"What's wrong Kagome," he asked looking around with his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga.

"Nothing," she told him, grabbing him into a hug, pressing her lips on his own. "Nothing."


End file.
